Portugal 4 – 4 Cyprus: This isn’t happening!

September 6th, 2010 | by: Miguel | Comments(30)

After spending 4 hours glued to my 32″ LCD to watch 2 absolutely dismaying performances by the Portuguese U21 and A teams I got all the joy kicked out of me. Had to drag my sorry ass to bed for a 4am start the next morning followed by a 2500Km car trip. I just couldn’t get myself behind a keyboard and type up anything that wouldn’t sound absolutely cataclysmic. My trip got inline with the mood the game had set as everything happened from a flat tire to a fender bender with an unpleasant French National, I could swear I heard him say “Les Blues” and “Belarus” in the same sentence… At least I’m back safe and sound and managed to spot some good things the game offered.

The good
If anyone had asked me to look at the positive aspects of the game after it had ended I’m sure my response wouldn’t stray to much from a resounding “What the fuck are you talking about?! Remind me to never, EVER, waste another minute looking at these retarded morons running around in a Portuguese Selecção jersey!!”, but (there is always a but lurking) as the dust settled I can actually recall some things I liked:

1) losing the holding midfield position against weaker opponents
I’ll start with the toughest one to agree on. I’ve heard and read we probably lost the game because of it. We’ve played the 4-1-x-y formation for so long it almost qualifies as a national soccer tradition of sorts. Against weak or strong, it was one thing easily predictable.
After our South African adventure the river ran deep with criticism on our timid and fearful approach of each game. We didn’t take the fight to the opponents’ half of the pitch and instead held our ground in the back and let them come to us.
Taking out the holding midfield position (aka trinco) seemed at first an excellent move towards changing our traditional approach of the game. Unfortunately it didn’t look as well on the pitch as it looked on paper. For it to work the gap left open needs to be covered by an advancing back line. And the new fortified midfield needs to be in a good enough shape to pressure the opponent as soon as they gain possession.
When Braga played Sevilha at home last month (Champions League play-off 1st leg) the first half was a good demonstration of this. Sevilha was all over Braga taking advantage of that gap between the back-line and midfield. Braga coach Domingos was aware of it and had 2 choices: (1) instruct the midfield to cover the gap and defend more tightly; (2) advance the back-line closer to the midfield. The traditional Portuguese coach approach demanded something along door number 1. I’m glad Domingos went for door number 2 and won the game 1-0.
All this takes time to sink in and unfortunately such luxury is hard to come by.

2) Ricardo Quaresma
He’s back. He’s mean. He’s a effing dribbling machine!
And we have Ronaldo’s injury to thank for it. He hasn’t played for this campaign and already contributed immensely by getting himself on the injured list! Mind you I do want him back asap! Imagine CR and RQ running wild against the opposing defenses! Carnage!
Quaresma showed once again he deserves his place on the team. Most dangerous attacks went through his feet. He looks very confident and with pace to boot.

3) Hugo Almeida minus ridiculous back-heel
As he starts to look more and more like an interesting striker he goes and back-heel (or whatever that was) a fantastic opportunity created by Quaresma, instead of hammering it in to finish off the game. He did score a nice goal and got off some menacing shots (one headed away by a defender on the goal-line).

The bad

1) 4
Four frickin goals?! Are you kidding me?! That just can’t happen! Brazil and Spain weren’t bloody good enough but Cyprus is?! FFS!!!

2) Miguel
I’m sorry for having to single out one particular player but there is no getting around the fact I’m starting to understand why Queiroz didn’t use him against Brazil or Spain. Cyprus’s first goal came about after Miguel clearly gave up on chasing after Aloneftis. Just two minutes later he loses the ball against a Cypriot player (or lacks commitment trying to win it) in a very dangerous position. Cyprus’s third goal has him standing idly by as Chralambibes runs past him, he doesn’t know what hit him, but does share the blame with the center-backs. And where exactly was Miguel when the Cypriots leveled the score at the 89th minute? I have no idea. True Eduardo takes a good chunk of the blame but still…

3) The team
The pieces just didn’t fall into place. Lack of pace due to lack of fitness. The players didn’t seem committed. Danny isn’t cut out for this role. Almeida does ridiculous back-heels. Coentrão takes Ronaldo’s cue and joins his list.

4) Agostinho Oliveira, Carlos Queiroz
If you are going to try something new it had better be well trained. If it isn’t… it shows. Sometimes very badly. Sometimes you pick up four from the back of your net. Sometimes.
Can one of you please take some responsibility instead of the crappy post-match statement: “We spent the last three days warning them about the dangers of the Cyprian team!”
Did you do any training during those three days or was it all about shouting: “BE CAREFUL! PLEASE! GUYS! I MEAN IT! BE VERY VERY CAREFUL!”

5) FPF
The Portuguese soccer federation is bordering something very ridiculous. They shouldn’t even make the headlines. Just sit in the shadows and do their jobs. Instead it is all about getting the spotlight. Build on ridicule with more ridicule and retarded statements like “We can win this on auto-pilot.”. How they have fought to shield the team from the media-circus is beyond me.

Most of what went wrong has been discussed extensively and I now just want to look to the future. And the future is in 17 hours and 30 minutes. We battle the Norwegians.

I’d like to see:
Eduardo
Silvio – Alves – Carvalho – Veloso
Fernandes – Meireles
Nani – Tiago – Quaresma
Almeida

If Silvio performs as I expect him to, then we should have an excellent alternative to Bosingwa (please get your ass back to the team asap!). Veloso looks like the best and only alternative to cover for Coentrão’s absence. How I hope the later doesn’t stay on that wretched injury list!

I’ll give the Fernandes-Meireles duo the benefit of the doubt as I feel this system needs more time to sink in and is the correct way to go. Definitely Tiago for Danny.

Norway is without the excellent John Riise. I’m never glad when I miss the opportunity to witness great players at work. Even if they are from our opposition.

FORÇA PORTUGAL!